Jeremy Engels

Assistant Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences

Office: 215 Sparks Building
Telephone: (814) 863-0760

Fax: (814) 863-7986
E-mail: jde13@psu.edu

Curriculum Vitae

EDUCATION:

B.A., University of Kansas, 2002
M.A., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 2003
Ph.D., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 2006

RESEARCH ACTIVITIES AND INTERESTS:

My research investigates the rhetorical foundations of democratic practices, in all their beauty, in all their ugliness, and ultimately in all their perplexity.  My first book, Enemyship, investigates, through detailed historical case studies, how talk of "the enemy" functions to coordinate political action--all the while theorizing the limits of such talk and its inappropriateness in republics/democracies.  It is forthcoming in Fall 2010. I am currently beginning a new line of research investigating how theorists of democratic deliberation deal with dialogue under distress--when deliberation goes wrong and is stretched to the breaking point. Do we tame deliberation with rules, with procedures, or with an emphasis on character? This work will culminate in a new book, The Rhetoric of Democracy, that recounts the attempts of rhetorical theorists from Ancient Greece forward to develop a rhetoric suitable for democratic governance. 

 

COURSES:

CAS 083, Freshman Seminar, The Rhetoric of War
CAS 311, Rhetoric, Politics, and Argumentation
CAS 373: The Rhetorics of War and Peace
CAS 411, Rhetorical Criticism
CAS 505: The History of Rhetorical Theory
CAS 507, Contemporary Democratic Theory
CAS 597, Liberalism and Power

PUBLICATIONS:

Books

Jeremy Engels, Enemyship: Democracy & Counter-Revolution in the Early Republic, forthcoming from Michigan State University Press.

Articles

Jeremy Engels, “The Politics of Resentment and the Tyranny of the Minority: Rethinking Victimage for Resentful Times,” forthcoming in Rhetoric Society Quarterly.

 

Gregory Goodale and Jeremy Engels, “Black and White: Vestiges of Biracialism in American
Discourse,” forthcoming in Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies.

 

Jeremy Engels, “Uncivil Speech: Invective and the Rhetorics of Democracy in the Early
Republic,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 95 (2009): 311-334. pdf file

 

Jeremy Engels, “Friend or Foe?: Naming the Enemy,” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 12, no. 1 (2009), 37-64.

Jeremy Engels and Gregory Goodale, “‘Our Battle Cry Will Be: Remember Jenny McCrea!’: A Précis on the Rhetoric of Revenge,” American Quarterly 61, no. 1 (2009), 93-112. pdf file

Jeremy Engels, “Democratic Alienation,” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 11, no. 3 (2008), 471-481. pdf file

Jeremy Engels, “Floating Bombs Encircling Our Shores: Post-9/11 Rhetorics of Piracy and Terrorism,” Cultural Studies—Critical Methodologies 7, no. 3 (2007), 326-349. pdf file

Jeremy Engels, “Disciplining Jefferson: The Man within the Breast and the Rhetorical Norms of Producing Order,” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 9, no. 3 (2006), 411-436. pdf file

Jeremy Engels, “‘Equipped for Murder’: The Paxton Boys and ‘the Spirit of Killing all Indians’ in Pennsylvania, 1763-1764,” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 8, no. 3 (2005), 355-382 [lead article]. pdf file

 

Jeremy Engels, “Reading the Riot Act: Rhetoric, Psychology, and Counter-Revolutionary Discourse in Shays’s Rebellion, 1786-1787,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 91, no. 1 (2005), 63-88.     pdf file

AWARDS

 

The Ruth S. and Charles H. Bowman Award, Department of Speech Communication, University of Illinois. Award given to the most outstanding graduate student in the department based on their record of scholarship, teaching, and service. May 2006.

The Karl Wallace Award, Department of Speech Communication, University of Illinois. Award given for outstanding scholarship. May 2005.